mom dropped me off in nashville on thursday night, and my flight left at around 8:45 to arrive in chicago around 10. the image below was taken from the tv in the airport terminal while i was waiting for the plane to arrive. for those who know my connection with the number 23, i felt reassured. of course, there are other connections to be drawn in this particular image : )
the flight was short but not without some thunderstorm turbulence. once i arrived and gathered my massive amounts of luggage, i took the el to belmont, then rode the bus to leavitt street, where i was pleased to find a starbucks on the corner. two blocks later, i stepped onto the front porch of my new place. i called dan to come get me at the door. the apartment is a duplex, and ours is the top unit. dan is a straight-up kind of sports-loving chicago dude, someone very interested in basic man things and who decorates his apartment with giant posters of The Rat Pack and Goodfellas and shit like that. he also has a great trophy case collection of empty jagermeister and captain morgan's bottles. despite what would seem like drastic differences in our interests, we talked for a good hour and a half while i unpacked all of my shipments and inflated my bed. he's a a nice guy, easy to talk to, and i think we'll get along just fine. i went to bed thursday night strangely satisfied and ready for the morning.
when i woke up, the light coming in my windows was really beautiful. it was awesome just to wake up and have nothing else to deal with after so many months of going from one major step to the next. i got up after a little while and looked up nearby grocery stores on my blackberry (which has become quite the useful little mofo!) and walked to a Dominick's. but not without stopping at the nearby starbucks first! anyway dominick's is kind of on par with a publix or something like that. i had made up my mind a few days back that i wanted to really embrace this creation of new experiences. so in line with that philosophy, i bought only groceries i'd never bought before. croissants, weird yogurts, a new kind of granola, fresh bagels from the bakery, awesome irish cheddar, etc... no more peanut butter and jelly, no more buying the same grocery items every week. new, strange things like Green Tea Mango Yogurt are the new norm, for better or for worse. i'm not completely deviating, since it's still stuff like granola and yogurt. but it's a different kind of both. baby steps.
after getting my groceries, i came home and made a sandwich. croissant with strawberry cream cheese and irish cheddar... yum! then i poured myself a glass of water and headed out to the front porch with a book of dave eggers' short stories to wait on my bike and my laptop to be delivered. eventually, my bike showed up, and i unpacked and reassembled it while i waited for the next fedex truck to bring my computer. turns out he had already tried to deliver it and reported it as the wrong address, so i had to call fedex and have them arrange for a saturday delivery. no biggie. i happily got all my bike gear on and rode to a nearby bike shop to get a tune up and whatnot. not only is the shop only 3 minutes away by bike... it's full of wonderful helpful people who were really excited that i was one more of the 25,000 cyclists in this city. they even had a shop dog named Buddy who apparently has his own fanclub with pins and everything. badass.
so i dropped off my bike and launched off into a neighborhood hike, discovering lots of wonderful little shops and cafes and stuff in Roscoe Village before finding myself in familiar territory near Lakeview. when i got hungry, i dipped into a pizza shop and had myself a 3 dollar slice of chicago deep dish to go, which i carried for a block or two to eat on a starbucks patio. good shit! the weather, by the way, was absolutely amazing all day. sunny, breezy, and in the 50's, just the way i like it. once i started to realize how far away from home i was getting, i started heading back in that general direction. somewhere on Western Ave, i happened upon Fearon's Public House, a genuine irish sports bar deal with some sort of cider on tap. i peered into the window, surveying the scene, and decided i'd give it a shot. there was wonderful mahogany stuff everywhere, some obligatory guinness posters, and lots of nice TVs hanging from the ceiling. as i ordered my pint, i realized that not one but two of these screens were showing soccer! so i sat and sipped my cider while watching highlights from italian serie a and scottish premiere league, simultaneously. and all the while, i was marveling at the brilliance of a bar WITH NO CIGARETTE SMOKE IN IT.
after an extended period of sipping on that pint, i walked home and kind of chilled out for a little bit before heading back out to grab some stuff at whole foods. there, i was really stoked to find that they sell Strongbow cider in 500ml cans, which you can't get in alabama because of the alcoholic content. ludicrous. on the walk home, i had a great chat with suzie, who had just returned from a trip to italy, and decided to drink a cider on the way home. drinking beer on the street... just another new experience, as far as i'm concerned. not something i'll make a habit of, but it was fun while it lasted.
after that i pretty much went home and hit the couch to watch High Fidelity before crashing out. a good start.
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